Are you feeling dizzy or disoriented by the ever-changing news flow? Politicians gyrate like weathervanes, changing policies and allies in step with changing wind direction. Civil discourse and thoughtful debate seem headed for the extinct species list. Long-held “certainties” get overturned with the stroke of a pen, or by tweet on some cyber media outlet. Disruptive leaders get elected who challenge global trading relationships or alliances, even where they have existed for centuries across a shared border, or been forged from the ruins of post-war Europe.

​

Nations turn against neighbours, tribes turn against each other. Misogyny and discrimination make a resurgence across supposedly educated populations, despite the #MeToo! and Black Lives Matter movements. Collective support for the most needy in our world, whether at home or abroad, is no longer viewed as something that binds society together or key to our “soft power”. Instead, charity is lumped in with all things unaffordable and unfair to taxpayers.

​

What’s going on? Has the world turned upside down? In whose interest is it to rip up the old order of things, and with it established rules of engagement?

​

Or had the old rules of engagement become hollowed out to some extent, disproportionately benefitting a few while leaving the majority behind? Are there parallels with the many rules and elites that governed ancient Hebrew society, as portrayed in the Old Testament? Then along came Jesus, the disruptor, who challenged an establishment whose rites, divisions and hierarchies neither served the multitudes of poor nor included all groups.

​

At the core of Jesus’ disruptive order, set out in his New Testament teachings, we discover

​

• love thy neighbour as thyself

• I was hungry and you gave me to eat, in prison and you visited…

• Whatsoever you do for the least of my brothers you do for me

• The Beatitudes, especially “blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy”

• It is better to give than to receive

• Distribute what you have to the poor and come, follow me

• In one Spirit we were all baptised into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free

 

How does that help us now? Rather than try to make sense of national leaders or billionaire entrepreneurs, whose interests seem at times to be on another planet, Jesus’s disruptive vision— with its core values of faith, hope, charity and love—offers the perfect antidote.

​

Of course, the words are easy to say. Living these values requires resilience, at times lots of it. Especially lately.

​

That’s why the story of Lokho, that CAFOD (the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development) has highlighted for the Lent 2025 appeal, seems particularly relevant for us. Faced with severe drought from climate change, Lokho and her community in Northern Kenya faced starvation or forced migration as their crops withered and animals died. Then they reached out to a CAFOD local partner, who gave them high-tech shade nets to protect their crops and animals from the harsh sun. These innovative

“anti-green house” nets let moisture through but keep out much of the sun’s rays. The nets enabled Lokho and her family to grow crops to feed themselves plus surplus to sell to others.

​

This example of overcoming challenges by coming together and building resilience can be a parable even for us living far from drought-stricken northern Kenya. Though insulated from the worst effects of climate change and food scarcity, we increasingly feel that the world has become unmoored, perhaps even unhinged, and our place in it far from secure.

​

As the story of Lokho shows, It is not by splintering, but instead by joining together that we can find more acceptable answers to challenges, be they local or global. We must find new ways of working that serve everyone. That’s what Lokho’s community did when they joined forces with a CAFOD partner and worked together to find more resilient ways to farm.​